The title says it all. BLs with a healthy power dynamic (mostly, since those are pretty rare), well-developed leads, great storylines, almost no unhealthy and unrealistic characterisations like yandere MLs or MCs with questionable IQs. Some exceptions are there, though; I've added the novels I liked despite them having somewhat yandere character(s).... more>>

I've added all the novels that checked off most of the boxes and noted everything I might have liked/disliked about those novels while reading. 

The rankings on each novel don't really matter (except for the ones at the beginning). Don't forget the ones at the bottom, although they're the ones I personally didn't like much! But you might!  <<less

Sequence is CN- JP- KR- Fluffy- (Comedy)- Exceptions- To-reads. Not ranked by number. 
My descriptions varies greatly from a gist, polished review, impressions, or explains key points.        ... more>>

[Flexible Preferences] 
A. Protags are somehow mostly male but I read both!- interesting, has compelling qualities, flawed with development
B. Entertaining, Distinct, & Creative
C. Steady premise, no TERRIBLE plot hole 
D. Romance: good execution, pacing, build-up, & evokes emotion; no bullsh!t drama & brain-dead denseness
E. Vital, relevant, fleshed-out characters
F. Comedic & Fun
G. Danger, Wars, Battles, Strategy, Tactics, Trials, Fights, Thriller, Suspense
H. Lore, Culture, Kingdom, Worldbuilding 
I. Political Intrigue, Schemes, Mind Games, Manipulation, Mystery
J.  Pure tragedies rarely - it hurts!
K. No BL/GL(yet?)
L. Can be R-18 
M. Polygamous-like IF great story | even if you're averse consider my recs. ;)

[Criteria]
1. These are (mostly) 4/5 stars in story, translation and enjoyment according to my flawed evaluation that is mainly 3/10 objective, 7/10 subjective.
2. I have perused the novels or adaptation before sharing my thoughts.
3. Writing must be consistent, coherent and engaging and the ending must at least not be sh!t. Clichés to a point are fine however it needs to be purposeful & executed well. 
4. I will keep adding books that are promising, satisfying, translated.  <<less

[For untranslated CN novel suggestions, please refer to the Comment Section of this list]... more>>

Romance novels that will make you reconsider the pre-established order of things, that shine by their realism, that demand that you acknowledge cannon fodders, that hinder you in condemning villains. <<less

Caution: bear the risk of having your taste being too sky-high standard.

Here some of my favorite novels, i tend to like novel without romance, harem, ecchi, or tragedy tags. I also like stories with great side characters rather than just focusing solely on MC. So if you look for those harem seeking protag and usual face slapping novel then sorry~ this isn't for ya...... more>>

P.S (edit 12/21) i removed all novel with romance hints, enjoy~ <<less

>>> Feel free to recommend me novels in the comment section below, so after I'm back I know what to binge read and give my thoughts on it.... more>>

One of the easiest to tell a novel is a 'Game Elements' is if it has a GAME SYSTEM included - most notable of it being part of the MC. Another one is that the Protagonist got transported INTO a Game World/Fantasy World - most notable are ISEKAI's.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: I only include novels that have Game Elements as mentioned BUT ALSO that I have already read from a quite decent amount of chapters to finished reading. Though do not fret for I would accept and feel feel to recommend novels to me and If possible tell me about it.

NOTES: I have tried my best to rank them based on the depth of the world/lore of the novel and it's writing. Every tier (namely Great -> Amazing -> Excellent) have a sub-tier with 1 (+) being the lowest and (+++) being the highest. I would like to say that it is inevitable that there would be a novel being in the same tier and sub-tier - that you would think isn't even on par in terms of quality. Hence why If you could tell why that specific novel about why it deserves to either to go up or down at the ranking - then I would thank you for your time telling me your point. Novels with no tiers can be only one thing - They could have been good.

PS: I seem to have underestimated the sheer amount of Novels with Game Elements... also I'm not expert in identifying Alignments <<less

Please consider donating some BL recommendations down in the comments, and I will add them to this to-read-list! I am seriously in need of food... more>> for my soul... thank you! Keep the yandere to a minimum <<less

Bl, bg, and no romance.  Genre’s pretty diverse.  I consider all of these top tier yummy food with good plot and fleshed out characters.  Not... more>> all of these are complete but some are good enough for me erode my brain and mlt.  Hope u all find smth u like.  (List incomplete) <<less

These are the novels that make me excited to see what the mc will do next.... more>>

Growth~mythical beings~solo mcs etc. <<less

Just a humble compilation of KR novels that I read this year. Disclaimer: My thoughts might contradict yours and thus I apologize in advance. Order... more>> is not important.  <<less

Note: All novels are rated above 4* and you can be rest assured to find some hidden gems here >o^... more>>

Okay, let's be realistic everyone~ ^v^ Human beings are not of the same mold, shape or size hence everyone's bound to have different preferences in some kind of form. Therefore, here I dutifully present to you my collection of novels that have had made the most impression on me and I can only hope that you may find THE ONE from this list.

PS. I personally love good quality reads that has a decent plot line and good character developments, as well as great translation work lest I have to destroy my brain cells haha Xd <<less

I find television to be very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go into the other room and read a book.

Overlooked and underrated novels that are really unique in terms of either characters, world, story or even several at once and don't have glaring faults.... more>>

Lots of novels are interesting at first but are destroyed by either insufferable characters or a terrible story. Not these. And if you know others like them, PLEASE let me know!

Bad stories and characters are everywhere, good stories and characters are rare, but truly UNIQUE stories or characters are unforgettable and THAT is what I'm looking for after reading hundreds of titles.

People often complain that many novels' characters are flat and fixed. Well, here they are not just really well written, but grow and change over time.

No reincarnations into tr*shy young masters, no sect branches that have bigger branches behind them with sects behind them with bigger sects behind them, no fighting 10 ranks higher enemies because MC is so special, no repeating the same nonsense again and again for thousands of chapters, no all-knowing MC on a rail to the next key-item, no arranged marriages and no idiots to be killed by MC for a back and forth of revenge with family->sect->kingdom->world againd and again.

I've read many hundreds of the most popular titles and they won't make the list because of mentioned issues, or are new and I don't know of them yet.

I made a second list with titles that didn't make it because of flaws but are still a good read.

Ranked in terms of being well-rounded and polished. <<less

don't you just hate it whenever you got transmigrate in a novel? especially a bl one? the feeling of adapting to a foreign place, with a golden finger- a whiny useless system? with your top notch acting skills, trying to not get killed but everyone falls in love with you suddenly? every single damn time, you just wanna go home but some hot pancakes tries to do you?! ah ah ah! what to do! this laozi just wanna go home!! send help uwu... more>>

ML: who are you talking to?

MC: AHHH STOP- DONT COME NEAR ME! THIS LAOZI WILL BEAT YOU TO DEATH!

ML: ...

ML: tie him up.

UWU <<less

These are the books that made me want to live within the world within the book.  ... more>>

Anyways, I really enjoyed reading them to the point that I want to remove the part of my brain that remembered reading those finished books so I can relish in rereading them again and again. Argghh!! 

*Honourable mentions: Books that I have mix feelings about, it's like, hmmm, I liked it 35%-45%, and dislike it 50%. Maybe it felt bland to me in some ways, or the way they wrote didn't really give me the chance to immerse myself in their world. 

*Entry: Books that introduced me to WN and LN.  <<less

This is a list of things I have read which I think are great from the perspective of 'quality of craft' & 'quality of story'. In general those will be great reads for everyone as well, but will less include 'because I like this' focused listings of other 'great so long as you like this' stories.... more>>

That said, there are only so many 'objectively great' stories, so farther down the list I will put caveats (etc.) with less 'full measure' stories- either 'just good', or 'great if you like this', etc. I moved all the anri-social protags to another list.

If you know of something I should add to this list, feel free to comment a suggestion or PM.

I have written quite a few reviews for most of these and other works- feel free to check them out, and vote them up if you find them helpful. Thanks! <<less

Stories that are really WORTH your time, coming from a long time novel reader and a picky one too ;) ... more>>

Different genres; from Adventure Comedy Fantasy Josei Romance Slice of Life XianxiaCompleted Historical Martial Arts Mature Drama School LifeMystery PsychologicalAction HorrorSmut Mystery Psychological Supernatural XuanhuanAdult ShoujoTragedySeinen Martial ArtsShounen <<less

Stories that I genuinely liked with interesting characters. These characters have ambition, smarts, or interesting perspectives. I think that every good story must have a good main character, or everything will collapse, so I've only added my absolute favorites.... more>>

The stories are in order, but they are all enjoyable. Some have romance (BL or GB) and others don't.  Some have period typical attitudes (ie, the value of women in a harem setting is not...spectacular). The majority are CN, but a few are also KN. There's...there's a lot of transmigration, admittedly. I have no defence there.

Please enjoy and let me know if my opinions are accurate! <<less

I've made this to keep track of those I'm currently reading. You can still use it as a reference though. I guarantee that what I'm reading is currently the cream of the crop of the current translation era. If you don't see your favorite novel, please feel free to comment and please relate it to my current list if possible. I'm also open for suggestions and I'll try to update the list as much as possible. Please be aware that this list composes of those I deem good or in my taste, so you might disagree with the few on the list.... more>>

Note: I remove the things I've completely read, so the list is very short. Also, the order is very relevant, though the top 5 usually swap position most of the time. <<less

My all time favorite bl novels that I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone! It’s a list with small self written synopses (UPDATE NOW IM LAZY LOL ILL COME BACK AND WRITE MORE IN DEPTH LATER) and my VERY LENGTHY opinions/me trying to convince you to read the novels lol. This list includes both modern and historical novels! Remember to come back and thank me later once you’ve finished reading any of them cause I have faith in how good my recommendations are LMAO ;)... more>>

Other notes:
- novels that are sorted higher = I liked them more 
- I’ll continue adding any novels that I like 
-Some of the ongoing novels I mtled  
-might be grammar mistakes in my descriptions cause I’m too lazy to proofread oops

-my descriptions might contain  small or “slight spoilers” that are revealed very early in the book  <<less

Every time I visit the front page of NU and I see a long title for a JP WN, I know its story and characters are going to be shallow and a waste of my time . I've been sick of the infinite number of the "fantasy RPG" Japanese WNs out there and Chinese WNs that drag on for thousands of chapters. Korean novels tend to be better in that respect by having a unique story and being easy to read without seeing half the chapter used up to describe insignificant details. ... more>>

Yeah there's still some isekai novels here but at least it's going to have good progression and character growth. <<less

I read sooo many novels but only a bit I can rate more than 4.5
So, this list consist the novels that I truly enjoy, definitely the stories with top notch plot and I love the characters. Or maybe an average plot but has its own uniqueness. Totally worthy my time to read them. Definitely with reread and recommend to anyone. ... more>>

Mostly consist of either one of them: mature leads, fantasy / action, slice of life, good world building

Not in specific rank.

Any recommendation is very WELCOME! <<less

A list of korean novels I enjoyed and some not entirely. Definitely no harem! 

Well, almost all my reading list.

Read Lord of the Mysteries and fell absolutely head over heels for it. these are some novels i think have similar elements: lovecraftian/occult horror, steampunk/victorian vibes, themes of humanity fighting against fate, etc.  A mix of read and TBR, as well as BL/GL/gen.... more>>

Recs from outside of Novelupdates:

- Mother of Learning on RoyalRoad, TBR. time loop f*ckery babeyyy. apparently there’s a good magic system and some character development. I’ve heard nothing of good things about this one!

- The Forsaken Sovereign on Webnovel, TBR. LOVECRAFTIAN THEMES AND ELDRITCH GODS I AM SO EXCITED. 

(feel free to forum message me to gush about any of these novels!) <<less